Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Real Deal

Utilitarian Design is not a punch line, our vans are truly built to be used. Whether Hi Ho racks up 30K miles in one summer traveling to bike races or Alvord lives off the grid in the dessert or Stella is up in AK... our customers, you, are the real deal. Below is a very cool story by Jane and her Big Cookie, 144 camper.
If you have van fever or are a slight gear geek, you will love this!
Thanks for sharing stories on the Outside

"I've got a good layout going. The shower hose is coiled and hooked with a bungie to an anchor above the water tank. The tarp (shower curtain) has 'biners to attach it to the rear door d-rings and is folded and crammed between the water tank and bed platform. The potable water hose is coiled and hangs on the opposite wall from an anchor. Stored in the rear bin are extra fuel cartridges and other odds and ends. Extra bikes are secured to the water tank wall via cam straps and anchors. Front wheels are stored between the bikes and all are protected with moving blankets. My bike slides easily in and out of the remaining space with the front wheel off. There is room for more bikes if needed. I carry 3 3-gallon water jugs for extra drinking water because I like getting the ultra-filtered stuff to drink. Two of these fit on the ledge in front of the water tank and the other on one on the other side and are secured with cam straps to anchors (the ledges are the ones to optionally rest the front third of the bed platform on). The portapotty lives just behind the kitchen cabinet and I keep a bucket there, too. There is also room under the platforn for a case of wine and trash box and some more odds and ends in a duffel.

The cabinets and drawers are more than ample for food, books, dvds and supplies of all sorts. The netting under one side is super nice and handy for hanging a towel and stuffing down jacket and sleeping clothes into. Then they're close when it's too cold to get out of bed in the morning!

I went with the twin size mattress so have lots of space left over on the platform for things like a duffel full of clothes, folded up camp chair, bug tent for campsites, etc. Having lots of strategically-placed 12V outlets is good and especially the two out of the rear bins are perfect for a gooseneck reading lamp on one side and iphone or laptop hookup on the other.

The swivel passenger seat is my easy chair and the stepstool needed to get up on the bed or clean the windshield is my ottoman. It's where I eat on one of those nice big Ikea trays. If I ever get back down there I am going to get a spice rack and some other hardware to put up on the kitchen "walls". The kitchen faucet hose is something I am sure glad I don't have to live without! It's easy to wash hair and do a sponge bath when privacy is needed or it's too cold outside. No worries about getting the rubber flooring wet! And for anybody who really cooks, the extra galley lights add a lot to the overhead lights.

Sweater and jacket are on the Sprinter coat hooks. Camelbaks and bike tool box, shoes, gloves etc. are stored in front of the passenger seat. The large DVD player is perfectly placed just behind the driving cabin if you like watching in bed like me. D-rings on the ceiling are great to hang stuff from using 'biners.

The slider window is something I also wouldn't want to have to live without because visibility out that side is sometimes problematic when turning or pulling out into traffic. Also would not want to live without the rear camera!

It's like everything you need and nothing you don't! I will try to make a point of taking some pics when I load it up next."